Lugo, Francona Perplexed By Ejections

SEATTLE - There is history between Red Sox shortstop Julio Lugo and umpire Angel Hernandez, and that may have spilled over into a bizarre scene Tuesday night at Safeco Field.

In the fifth inning of a 4-3 Mariners victory, Hernandez, umpiring third base, ejected Lugo, then ejected Red Sox manager Terry Francona. But neither the shortstop nor the manager said they received an adequate explanation for why they were tossed.

With two outs and a runner on first, Raul Ibanez checked his swing on a 1-and-0 pitch from David Aardsma, who had just replaced an injured Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Red Sox appealed to Hernandez at third base, and Hernandez singled safe for ball two.

At that moment, Hernandez turned toward Lugo, some 30 feet away at the shortstop position, and stared at him before suddenly ejecting him.

"The only thing I said about a check-swing was 'check,'" Lugo said. "I mean, it was nothing. I didn't say anything else. I said 'check.' He looked over there and he was just staring at me. I was like, 'Why are you staring at me?' He called timeout and threw me out. There was nothing I could say. There was nothing said. I didn't say anything else."

Lugo ran over to Hernandez and got in the umpire's face, asking for an explanation, but Hernandez turned away and would not address him, further agitating Lugo before Francona came out and took up the argument, and was ejected himself.

"I wouldn't know where to begin," Francona said. "I really couldn't. I didn't go out there to try and get thrown out. I wanted to get Lugo out of there and move on with the game. I wasn't really happy. Sometimes you get answers or no answers that set you off a little bit. Obviously he said something to me I didn't like and I end up getting thrown out. I didn't get a very good answer."

Mike Lowell, playing third base, confirmed Lugo and Francona's account.

"I heard [Lugo] say 'check,'" Lowell said. "I said 'check,' as well. And then I heard Lugpo say, 'I don't know why you're looking at me.' And then Angel said, 'You don't want to argue that.' And he said, 'I don't know why you keep looking at me,' and he threw him out.

"Honestly, he didn't curse at him, he didn't say anything. I don't know if he misunderstood something he said. I didn't think he said anything that merited to be thrown out. Then when Tito confronted him and said, 'What did he do to get thrown out?' he didn't have a response."

Last April in Baltimore, Lugo and Hernandez got into a heated argument at home plate when Hernandez did not allow Lugo to call timeout at the last moment with Daniel Cabrera in his windup, then called a strike with Lugo having backed out of the batter's box. Lugo was not ejected.

"I don't know if he has something personal against me," Lugo said. "I have nothing personal against him. I never talk to him. That thing in Baltimore, it was something ... I don't know. I can't understand. I respect him.

"I just wanted to know why he threw me out. This is a game where you come here and you play hard and you try to respect everybody. You expect people to respect you. For someone to throw you out, there's got to be something more than that. It's not fair. I asked him why he threw me out and he didn't say anything."